The unsigned article ‘Indian newspaper industry: Red ink splashed across the bottom line’ that appeared on 19 January on the edit page of Times of India (TOI) is replete with half-truths, untruths and innuendoes. The burden of the article is that the newspaper industry is in deep crisis with ‘red ink splashed across the bottom line’ and solutions lies in government scrap the recommendations of the wage board, which allegedly placed unbearable burden on the industry. The article also invokes the role of the print media in democratic process and implies that in service of the freedom of expression, the interests of the working journalists and other employees should be sacrificed at the altar of profits to the industry.

It is strange that a newspaper whose Chief Executive Officer (CEO) once infamously said that ‘they are in business of advertisements and news is incidental’, now invokes democracy to seek concessions from the government and get inconvenient labour laws out of their way so that they can act with impunity and practice hiring and firing of the working journalists. The unnamed author of the article went to the extent of saying that the print media faced an ‘existential’ threat and would wither away if the government roll back the recommendations of the wage board. Largely, the arguments are untrue and ludicrous, to put it mildly.   

Let us look at the facts. Every time wage boards were appointed after prolonged agitations by the working journalists and other newspaper employees, the newspaper managements challenged their constitutional validity before the Supreme Court. In turn the apex court rejected their contentions every time and made it clear that its recommendations should be implemented without any exception. Immediately after the notification of the Majithia wage board scales, the DAVP increased the rates of its advertisements by 20 percent to offset the possible increase in wage burden. The newspaper houses quietly swallowed that and now crying hoarse over ‘rock bottom rates’.

Empirical data suggests that the over the decade, the ratio of wage bill of employees in newspaper production cost is coming down drastically. Four decades ago, it was about forty percent of total cost, now it is less than ten percent. Due to advanced technology in printing and communications, the number of working journalists and other newspaper employees is coming down. It is no exaggeration to say that the number of employees is less than the number of the highly paid executives in the newspaper establishments like the Times of India. The wage board entitled employees in Times of India group is not even ten percent of the total work force including the executives.

In name of liberalisation and to beat the provisions Working Journalists and Other newspaper employees (Service conditions and other miscellaneous provisions) Act, popularly known as Working Journalists Act (WJA) which do not allow hire and fire policies, all most all the newspaper houses have introduced ‘contract employment’ for journalists and other employees robbing them of job security. In a communication to the Maharashtra Government Labour Department, the Times of India group claimed that it had only about 450 employees on its rolls eligible for wage board scales. The TOI has an estimated workforce of about 5 thousand.

According to the reports from the State Government Labour Departments from across the country very few newspaper establishments fully implemented the recommendations of the wage board. Several cases of contempt of court were pending in the Supreme Court over non-implementation of the wage board scales. It is travesty of truth to say that wage board recommendations is one of causes for pressure on the bottom lines of the newspaper establishments leading to closure of editions and retrenchment of journalists and other employees. In reality, the big newspaper houses are trimming their operations by leveraging latest technology at the cost of cutting down workforce to maximise their profits.

It is a false to say that non-journalist employees of the newspaper industry are being paid higher wages than those working in corporate companies and the government. As a matter of fact, the government employees at centre and states are getting much more than newspaper employees in comparable positions after the implementation of the seventh pay commission recommendations. Several newspaper houses and most of the small and medium newspapers were affected more by the predatory pricing and ‘price wars’ initiated by the Old Lady of Boribunder meant to drive them out of market.   

It is interesting that the TOI upped the ante on eve of elections to five state assemblies including the all important Uttar Pradesh. The newspaper behemoth, which claims that it is the largest circulated English daily in the world, is taking cudgels on behalf of the newspaper industry to grant tax concessions in name of crisis. It also wanted to pressurise the government not to initiate any action against the newspaper establishments for violating the law of the land, whose constitutional validity was upheld by the highest court. Its efforts seems to have started to bear fruits as the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has come out with a statement that the Minister would hold discussions with print media managements to address their grievances shortly.  

The argument that the print media in the country is facing existential threat is gross exaggeration. While the world over the print media is ceding space to digital media and declining year by year, in India it is posting positive growth. Its advertisement revenue is registering a healthy growth. The fact that the newspapers are paying much higher salaries to contract journalists and executives goes to prove that they are not a sinking ship. Strangely the same newspaper houses which demanded that the government control over the newsprint should go in name of liberalisation and free market are now asking the government to give them sops as the ‘market forces’ are not bringing them super profits.  

The anonymous writer populously says that ‘this is the time to strengthen an industry that can help spread literacy, deepen democracy, become a force multiplier for India as a soft power, and grow in scale to take on agendas and interests inimical to the nation.’ But the aim cannot be achieved by denying the statutory wages to the working journalists and other newspaper employees. It cannot be achieved by robbing the working journalists of their job security. The best way is to strengthen the freedom of expression by safeguarding the position of the editor and other working journalists to give voice to the voiceless millennium and thereby strengthen and deepen democracy.

The organisations of the working journalists and editors should come together and build a strong movement in defence of the rights of working journalists and other newspaper employees achieved with their blood and sweat in the last seven decades. They should also fight against any policy regime that threatens the viability of the newspaper industry.

(The authors S.N.Sinha is President & Amar Devulapalli is Secretary General of Indian Journalists Union, New Delhi)